The evolution of ion charge states in cathodic vacuum arc plasmas: a review

Ion energy distribution functions of vacuum arc plasmas

Temporal development of ion beam mean charge state in pulsed vacuum arc ion sources.

Vacuum arc ion sources, commonly also known as "Mevva" ion sources, are used to generate intense pulsed metal ion beams. It is known that the mean charge state of the ion beam lies between 1 and 4, depending on cathode material, arc current, arc pulse duration, presence or absence of magnetic field at the cathode, as well as background gas pressure. A characteristic of the vacuum arc ion beam i...

Deposition of permalloy films by filtered cathodic vacuum arc

The filtered cathodic vacuum arc technique was employed to deposit magnetic films such as FeNi on silicon substrate. Using the normal cathode design, tetrahedral amorphous carbon and metals films can be deposited. If a magnetic target is used, the arc spot always preferably moves to the edge of the target and then extinguishes. Therefore, the arc is not stable and no film can be deposited. A ca...

Plasma-based ion implantation utilising a cathodic arc plasma

Plasma-based ion implantation (PBII) is usually carried out with isotropic gaseous plasmas, such as a discharge in nitrogen. More recently, it has been applied using drifting plasmas, such as those produced by cathodic arcs, in order to allow efficient implantation of metallic species. The condensable nature of a cathodic arc plasma allows for the deposition of ion-stitched thin film coatings, ...

Axial ion charge state distribution in the vacuum arc plasma jet

We report on our experimental studies of the ion charge state distribution ~CSD! of vacuum arc plasmas using a time-of-flight diagnostic method. The dependence of the CSD on the axial distance from the plasma source region was measured for a titanium vacuum arc. It was found that the axial CSD profile is nonuniform. Generally, the mean charge state increases approximately linearly with axial di...